So Mum, What's It Like Inside A Nuclear Reactor?
by Marshmallows rock
Summary: While researching a science project, Luke, Maria and Clyde meet a certain Professor Watson and find out what happened when the Doctor and Sarah visited Nunton Complex. Fairly big spoilers for Hand of Fear


Hehe

Hehe! Saw Hand of Fear the other day and the plot bunny was born!

Don't own squat

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

Clyde and Maria were not best pleased at having to give up their Saturday to work on their science project. Luke was quite happy to do so but then that was Luke. Which was why the trio set off to catch the bus with only Luke feeling cheerful.

"This is the daftest, lamest project in the history of daft lame projects," Clyde moaned, making a dive for the back seat.

Luke frowned. "What does daft-"

"It means silly," Maria translated, settling back in her seat and switching on her MP3 player. The science class had to find out about how power stations worked by interviewing someone in the field.

"At least we found someone. It wouldn't have looked very good if we hadn't been able to hand anything in," Luke continued, ignoring Clyde's rather dramatic groan. "It was very kind of Professor Watson to let us interview him."  
"It would have been kinder of him to let us keep our Saturday," Clyde yawned.

"Oh, can you shut up for two minutes?" Maria sighed, looking out of the window. "Come on, here's our stop."

Professor Watson, although he was now eighty years old, was as keen and alert as when he was head of Nunton Complex, and although they had been dreading out Clyde and Maria found the interview quite enjoyable. Then they discovered a huge surprise.

"Were there ever any emergencies at the nuclear complex, and if so what happened?" Luke asked about an hour into the interview.

Professor Watson could only remember minor things at first. Then something came into his brain.

"There was one very big emergency about thirty years ago." He eased himself up out of his chair and went to fetch a newspaper. It was old and yellowed but still legible, dated October 1976, and the three teenagers stared at it.

"Page seven," Professor Watson said, sitting back in his chair and smiling at the thought of their reactions when they saw what was on that page.

He was quite unprepared for it.

"_That's Sarah Jane!_" Maria gasped.

"There is a strong resemblance between Mum and the photograph," Luke said, frowning over the page.

Clyde, for the first time ever, said nothing at all.

"Are you related?" Professor Watson said to Luke.

"Adopted son, and these two are friends."

"What on earth did Sarah Jane do here?" Maria said, feeling that the interview was turning out to be a lot more interesting than she had expected.

The article in the paper talked of suicides, nuclear accidents and a man with a long scarf and a woman in striped overalls infiltrating the complex, with a picture beside it of a young woman, with dark wavy hair, and wearing striped overalls.

They stared at him.

"So Sarah Jane actually went inside the reactor thing? That's bad isn't it?" Clyde said.

"It is bad," Luke agreed, "because unless the reactor is completely shut down, there is enough radiation inside to kill a herd of elephants, and even when it is shut down you must wear a radiation suit."  
"I'll stop you there Luke," Clyde said, wishing he had never asked.

"Why?"  
"No reason, I just have to stop you"  
While Maria turned her "pack it in stare" on the two boys, Professor Watson chuckled to himself. The last time he had heard the phrase "enough to kill a herd of elephants" it was from the strange Doctor, with the long scarf.

"Can you tell us more?" Maria wondered.

"OK, but I wouldn't put it down in your homework. They'll think you mad. They thought we were mad."

For another hour, he told them the full story, of a hypnotised Sarah, the strange stone hand, Carter's death, Driscoll, his faithful PA in the core, the planes on the complex, how they had nearly been killed twice in one day, and the strange creature called Eldrad, and the phrase "Eldrad must live."

When the trio left to return to Bannerman Road, Professor Watson had let them keep the newspaper. As he watched them go out of sight, he thought about that day, long ago. It had been described as a strange accident, even thought the laws of physics had been shattered. Miss Smith, with the help of some people from UNIT, had temporarily gone into hiding, until the whole thing blew over. As the kids turned the corner, he chuckled, thinking of the reaction if he had told the truth.

When Luke, Maria and Clyde had returned, Sarah was sitting up in the attic examining a strange circle shaped object she had found under a chair.

"Sarah Jane?"  
She turned around and saw Luke holding the paper at page seven, and dropped her notepad in shock.  
Luke was the first to speak. "So Mum, what's it like inside a nuclear reactor?"


End file.
